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Monday, April 28, 2014

I love my Tubie Baby!

Dear Son,On March 28, 2014, after careful consideration, we proceeded with a 3rd surgery in less than a year for a G-tube placement. For several months, you have failed to gain adequate weight due to pain from previous hernias. As a result from the hernias, you developed poor eating behaviors such as a bottle aversion and acid reflux. You also have fallen behind developmentally, which the doctors and I believe it is due to you not getting enough nourishment. It was very scary when you would gag and throw up your entire meal, refuse your bottle, or not drink enough fluids during the day. Since three doctors encouraged us to get the G-tube, we decided it was the right solution to help you gain some weight in the following months. Our goal is to get you 10-20% on the growth chart. The tube hopefully will only need to be in for six months. I intend for you to eat normal during the day and supplement as needed at night. Additionally if you throw up your meals, we will then supplement too. During the early morning of surgery day, you were brave, happy, and full of smiles. In fact, when the surgical nurse wrapped you up in warm blanket and took you away to the surgery room you didn't scream at all. After surgery when you woke up in the recovery room, I was there to cuddle you. You were transferred to the pediatric floor and Dad and I stayed with you until you got discharged from the hospital the next day. The surgery went a little different than the doctor expected. Due to adhesions from your previous surgeries, the surgeon had to open you up again from your precious chest scar instead of doing a laparoscopy method.

Remarkably, you healed pretty well after three weeks and seem back to your normal routine of rolling, sitting, wanting to stand. The only complication we had was a little granulation (skin healing near the site) that had to be addressed by the doctor otherwise it has been okay adjusting to the G-tube routine. I'm happy that you have been tolerating the night feedings well and on the days you struggle (gag and vomit) we feed you through the tube. We named your iv pole "Stanley"! Big sister and little sister are very helpful in assisting Daddy and me with your tube feedings at night. We are happy that you are gaining weight and babbling more. In due time, I bet you will catch up on gross motor skills when you are ready.

My Favorite Quotes

"Possibly the hardest guidelines for us to follow are those we set for ourselves. To analyze our fears, our dreams, our goals, our motives, can be soul-wrenching...We may find that we fear failure so much that we won't take a risk. Often our self-esteem is bruised by criticism...There is anatural, and probably a mortal, tendency to compare ourselves with others. Unfortunately, when we make these comparisons, we tend to compare our weakest attributes with someone Else's strongest... I am also convinced of the fact that the speed with which we head along the straight and narrow path isn't as important as the direction in which we are traveling." -Marvin J. Ashton

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will — to your surprise — miss them profoundly."

"Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine." Gordon B. Hinckley

“Often the deep valleys of our PRESENT will be UNDERSTOOD only by LOOKING BACK on them from the mountains of our FUTURE experience. Often we can’t see the LORD’S HAND in our lives until long after the trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are ESSENTIAL building blocks that form the FOUNDATION of our CHARACTER and pave the way to FUTURE opportunity, understanding, and happiness." -

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”

- PAUL VALERY

"In all living, have much FUN and LAUGHTER. Life is to be ENJOYED not just endured." ~Gordon B. Hinckley

"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true."--RALPH WALDO EMERSON

"I'd give up chocolate, but I am not a quitter!" ---Author Unknown

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page”

- ST. AUGUSTINE

"Hope is a leg of a 3-legged stool with Faith and Charity." — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"None of us will become perfect in a day or a month or a year. We will not accomplish it in lifetime, but we can begin now, starting with our more obvious weaknesses and gradually converting them to strengths as we go forward with our lives. this quest may be a long one: in fact, it will be lifelong. It may be fraught with many mistakes, with falling down and getting back up again. And it will take much effort. But we must not sell ourselves short. We must make a little extra effort. We would be wise to kneel before our God in supplication. He will help us. He will bless us. He will comfort and sustain us. He will help us to do more, and be more, than we can ever accomplish or be on our own." -Gordon B. Hinckley

“Families are like fudge… Mostly sweet, with a few nuts”

---Author Unknown

"As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you." Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Try a little harder to be a little BETTER." ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

"Always do what you are afraid to do."-- RALPH WALDO EMERSON

"Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." -George Lles

"Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination." -- VOLTAIRE

"You have not failed until you quit trying." -Gordon B. Hinckley

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."- James Dean

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."-- MARK TWAIN

"I know God will not give me more than I can bear, I just wish He didn't trust me so much." -Mother Teresa

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."- Dr. Seuss

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."

-- HENRY FORD

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."— Dr. Seuss

"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world"-- UNKNOWN

"Mediocricy will never do. You are capable of something better." Gorden B. Hinckley

"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read."--MARK TWAIN

"He who has nothing to die for has nothing to live for."

- Moroccan Proverb

"Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people."-- MOTHER TERESA

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

"If Life Gets Too Hard To Stand, Kneel." -Gorden B. Hinckley

My favorite quote from Lord of the Rings:

“Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." -- ROBERT FROST

"Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight." -Gordon B. Hinckley

"For everyone who thought I couldn’t do it. For everyone who thought I shouldn’t do it. For everyone who said, ‘It’s impossible.’ See you at the finish line."--From the sign on the wall of the late Christopher Reeve's exercise room where he did his daily physical therapy after being paralyzed from the neck down in a horse riding accident.

"I would like to suggest to you that you ‘grab life by the horns’ and do not let life grab you by the horns. You take control of your lives. … Do not let life control you. … Take charge. Rise to the divinity that is within you." - Gorden B. Hinckley

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.Dream. Discover"-- MARK TWAIN